Nutritional management in hospital setting during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a real-life experience.

Coronaviruses are a family of pathogens that primarily affect the human respiratory tract. In December 2019 first cases of a new Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) were reported in China. On the 24th of March, the worldwide confirmed cases rose to 372.757 and 16.231 deaths, while in Italy, there were 63.927 total confirmed cases and 6.077 deaths. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a pandemic. While actual evidence is focusing on the general management of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), little is known regarding nutritional support during hospital stay (HS). The lack of nutritional procedures could, in turn, prolong patients’ recovery and increase further infectious complications. To better plan the nutritional management of this hospital emergency, we report the strategy adopted in our institution, the «Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli-IRCCS» of Rome, Italy, which recently became one of the COVID-19 reference centers in our region.